


Reconciliation

by TurtleTotem



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Post-X-Men: Dark Phoenix (Movie), Post-xmdp, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22601038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurtleTotem/pseuds/TurtleTotem
Summary: Charles calls Hank from Paris, and they say some things they needed to say.(This definitely has Charles/Erik going on in the background, but the fic is focused on Charles and Hank. I hope it's still within the spirit of the fest.)
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Hank McCoy & Charles Xavier
Comments: 21
Kudos: 80
Collections: X-Men Rare Pairs 2020





	Reconciliation

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [KuhakuE](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuhakuE/pseuds/KuhakuE) in the [xmenrarepairs20](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/xmenrarepairs20) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
> Post-DP reconciliation.

Charles tried to be as quiet as possible as he moved around the hotel room, though if Erik had slept through him transferring from the bed to the wheelchair, he wasn't likely to be woken by the sound of a suitcase snapping shut. It didn't take Charles long to pack up his belongings; he hadn't brought much with him to Paris. He'd wanted as few reminders as possible of what he was trying to think of as his "old life," something that was over and done with. Not something that was still happening, still hurting, still part of every heartbeat.

It would be easier, he thought, when he and Erik got to Genosha. When he had a new life to replace the old one, new things to do and think about, new people to care for.

He turned to look at Erik's face in the dawn light through the curtains, and felt his mouth melt into a smile, half joy, half disbelief. They were doing this, at last. They were throwing everything else aside to be together. Well, no—Charles had nothing left to throw aside, and Erik, to his shock and no small amount of awe, had given up his violent rampages, years ago now. They had finally reached a place in their lives when they didn't _have_ to throw anything aside to be together, and wasted very little time in taking advantage of it. Charles had been in Paris only a week before Erik found him.

Charles's smile faded as his gaze landed on the telephone next to the bed. He had told himself all morning that he would call Hank before they left. His school's new headmaster ought to be kept informed, ought to be able to reach him. Or was he only pretending there was any chance of Hank needing his help, or deigning to seek it if he did?

If he was going to call, it had to be now; with the time difference between Paris and New York, it would already be almost midnight at the school. Hank had always been a night owl, and Charles felt confident he would still be awake for another few minutes, but he couldn't justify calling any later than midnight.

He didn't have to call Hank. He certainly didn't owe it to him, after the things Hank had said to him. He could disappear from known civilization without a word, if he wanted to. But he didn't actually want to disappear from his oldest living friend's life without a trace.

Or maybe he was just a control freak who couldn't stand not to keep his finger in the pie somehow.

Either way, he picked up the phone.

He waited through the clicks and noises and long pauses of an international call, until finally the line to his own old office began to ring. And ring. And ring. He was about to give up, thinking Hank must have gone to bed after all, when a muzzy voice finally said, "Hello?"

"Hank, I'm so sorry, did I wake you?"

"Charles!" To Charles's great surprise, Hank sounded happy—relieved, even. Charles wasn't great at interpreting tone of voice without telepathic back-up, but surely he couldn't be _this_ wrong. Hank sounded happy. "Did Erik find you?"

Charles glanced at Erik, still sleeping, his face turned away from the light now. "He did. I'm going back to Genosha with him today. I thought I ought to let you know. I'll send you my new address and phone number as soon as I have them. If that's all right."

"Yes, of course that's all right."

"I… didn't realize you'd spoken with Erik." To be honest, Charles hadn't questioned how Erik found him. He'd been afraid to look too closely at the fairytale.

"He came here looking for you." Hank hesitated. "He, um. He gave me quite the scolding when he found out you weren't here. That I'd let you just leave, alone, after everything you'd done for me. For all of us. He said I should be ashamed of myself, and I realized I was. I am. Charles, you and I have been friends too long to leave things… like this between us."

Charles's breath caught; he tried to ignore the prickling in his eyes. "Yes," he said hoarsely. "I agree. Your support has meant so much to me over the years, Hank. You've literally kept me alive at times. Losing you would be almost as bad as—as losing Raven—" His voice faltered. Appalled at himself, Charles stopped trying to speak.

"Losing Raven," Hank said heavily. "Exactly. That's… I was hurting so much, and I lashed out—I realize now I was projecting, to an extent. Blaming you so I wouldn't have to blame myself. You've always—well, not always, but the last few decades anyway—seemed capable of absorbing any damage, standing against any storm, and you—" His voice shaded from apology to bewildered anger; now he spoke of something that still bothered him. "You hardly seemed to care that Raven was gone. You were so distant, like it had happened years ago…"

Quietly, Charles said, "Hank, my telepathy is stronger now than ever, and the passive elements of it are harder to rein in. There are quite a few children at the school with sensitivities of various sorts, who wouldn't be able to block me out if I let myself go." And then the deeper truth, words that hurt on their way out—"Do you remember what happened last time I let myself grieve what I had lost? I couldn't stop. I couldn't find my way back."

"Of course," Hank whispered. "I'm so sorry."

"It's all right, Hank," Charles said, and tried to mean it. Tried to be the paragon of wisdom and kindness the children thought him to be. That Jean had thought him to be.

"You don't have to stay away," Hank blurted. "I had no right to ever imply you should go—This is your school, top to bottom. You built this place as surely as if you'd mortared the stones of it with your own hands. You can come back home."

Charles's mouth quirked. "My job is harder than you thought it would be, isn't it?"

"Yes," Hank said, half-laughing, "and I never thought it would be easy. You're so much more suited to it than I am."

Charles's heart ached with contradictory things, but… "No. Maybe someday—but I need distance, I need change." _I need to be somewhere that I don't see the ghosts of my sister and my little girl everywhere I turn._ "And the school needs a new perspective, you weren't wrong about that. Maybe I built it, but it can't always be only mine. It needs to be able to survive without me."

Erik, he realized, had opened his eyes, and was frowning at him. As Charles watched, he came around the bed to crouch next to the wheelchair, and brushed away tears Charles hadn't even noticed on his face. His Erik, the same fierce and glorious soul he had always loved, its aggression tempered by time. Erik had slowly, finally, learned patience and prudence to go with his passions. Maybe Charles could learn new things too.

"Are you sure?" Hank was asking.

Charles squeezed Erik's hand. "I'm sure. I'm going with Erik. But I'll get you that new number as soon as I can. Please call me any time."

"I will, Professor." Hank paused. "I love you, Charles."

There went the tears again. "I love you too, Hank."

He hung up the phone and turned to Erik, smiling. "Let's go, love. I can't wait to see our new home."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * A [Restricted Work] by [luredin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luredin/pseuds/luredin) Log in to view. 




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